1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for approximating a polygonal line to a curve used in a computer graphic display unit, a graphic
printing unit and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a computer graphic display unit, a graphic printing unit, or the like, a complex process is required when wishing to directly generate a curve for a display thereof, and therefore, as an alternative, a polygonal line is approximated to a curve and a plurality of line segments corresponding thereto are generated and displayed.
In a prior art method of approximating a polygonal line for a curve, for example, a curve is divided into a predetermined number of parts, and only the coordinates of division points on the curve are calculated, and then the curve is approximated by a polygonal line having a plurality of line segments linking the above-mentioned coordinates on the curve.
Nevertheless, to obtain a precise display of a curve having a large curvature by a polygonal line, the number of divisions, i.e., the number of line segments, must be increased, thus increasing the processing time and the data amount. On the other hand, the precision for a curve having a small curvature is too high.